Taming the Beast
by DarkerThanYin
Summary: When Ichika gets injured on a top secret mission, the girls discover that Ichika suffered more than just physical harm—his personality underwent a major shift as well! Say goodbye to dense Ichika and hello to Ichika the romantic! The girls like the new Ichika at first, but soon tire of him, favoring his old self. Can the girls succeed in restoring Ichika to his former cluelessness?
1. The Fallen Angel

**Beta:** Flashfire Freak

 **Author's Note:** I apologize for the briefness of this chapter. I didn't want to get into the stuff with Ichika until next chapter, so I felt like this was a good place to cut it off. This may not be the best time to start writing, as regular updates will be somewhat on the rare side for a little while. I have a lot of school stuff to finish up before finals in two weeks. I do have the next few chapters planned out though, and I will be working on this as much as I can. If you're interested to see where the story goes, I recommend following the story so you can get an update when the next chapter goes out.

That being said, I hope you enjoy this. It's my first attempt at writing fan fiction in a while, so it may not actually be as great as I think it is. Feel free to leave me any comments or suggestions you may have. I welcome them all, positive or negative, as they will only help me to deliver better content. Thank you for taking the time to read this!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Infinite Stratos or anything in the universe. This is purely a work of fiction, created by a fan, for fans.

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Chapter 1 - The Fallen Angel

"Everyone, quick! He's waking up!"

As the unknown voice echoed throughout the room, multiple pairs of footsteps could be heard rushing down the hall. Slowly, Ichika Orimura opened his eyes as his vision slowly came back to him. Among the white walls and bright lights of the hospital room he found himself in, Ichika could vaguely make out the forms of his friends standing over him.

"Ichika, are you okay? What happened?" inquired Houki.

"How dare you worry me like that, Ichika darling!" exclaimed Cecilia.

"Alright. Settle down, everyone!" A stern, commanding voice resonated throughout the room. Chifuyu Orimura glared at each of the girls as she entered the room. "I know all of you are worried sick, but suffocating Ichika isn't going to help things at all. Now, I hate to kick you out, but there is some classified business my brother and I have to discuss. Don't you have a skills exam to be practicing for anyway…?"

"We're very sorry about that, Miss Orimura. We completely forgot about it. We shall go study right away," stated Charlotte.

As the girls filed out of the room, Laura glared back at Chifuyu and muttered "Mentor, please take good care of my bride. I vant him to recover quickly." And with that, Laura sauntered out of the room, leaving Chifuyu and Ichika alone in the recovery area.

The walk back to the dorms was a long one. It was a bright, sunny afternoon, yet judging by the way the girls walked, you would think that the sky had fallen down. "So… Is Ichika gonna be alright?" asked Rin.

Houki quietly responded, "He's in Miss Orimura's hands now. She won't let anything else happen to him."

Charlotte then followed, "That is true. For now, we should let the doctors and our teacher do their jobs. We should turn our attention to pract-"

"How can you even think about practicing at a time like this?" an agitated Cecilia interrupted. "My poor Ichika is finally awake and I can't be by his side! We don't even know what happened! There's no way I can concentrate on fighting in this condition."

"Though ve must," Laura grimly countered. "Ve are fighters. This is vat ve are trained to do, yes? The battlefield is a tough place, and though our comrades may fall, ve must keep going. That is our job."

"I suppose you're right," Cecilia conceded. "Can we at least get some lunch first, though? I'm absolutely famished." Cecilia let out a light chuckle as the girls nodded in agreement and headed off to grab a bite to eat.


	2. The Mission

**Beta:** Flashfire Freak

 **Author's Note:** Thank you all for waiting patiently for this chapter. I've had a lot on my plate the past few weeks, so this hasn't been a huge priority lately. As always, any reviews, whether good or bad, will help me craft a story that you would want to read.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Infinite Stratos or anything in the universe. This is purely a work of fiction, created by a fan, for fans.

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Chapter 2 — The Mission

As the girls hastily left the room, Chifuyu sighed and turned to look at her ailing brother. _"Just what on earth happened to you out there?"_ she wondered. "So, how are you doing?" inquired Chifuyu. She was met with a wall of silence as Ichika struggled to move his head.

A few minutes passed with no further movement attempts. Seeing the state Ichika was in, it wasn't all that surprising. After all, bandages covered Ichika practically from head to toe. Chifuyu gave Ichika one last look and said, "Right… Well, we can talk later. I have to head back to my office now. If you need me, just send for me. Get better soon." Chifuyu quickly stood up, turned around, and strolled towards the door. As she was leaving however, a soft voice froze her in place.

"Chi…fu…yu…" muttered Ichika. "Phan…" And with that, Ichika drifted back to sleep.

Chifuyu stared at her brother, gently nodded, then stormed out of the room. The walk back to her office seemed shorter than usual, as Chifuyu was lost in thought over her brother's parting message. _Phan…? Could he be talking about Phantom Task? It can't be. He's just out of it from that medicine they've been giving him. But… I can't just disregard the possibility either._

She sat down at her desk and pulled a folder from its resting place on the shelf above. Staring the mission briefing before her, Chifuyu carefully studied it and replayed the operation in her head:

 _CLASSIFIED — We have reason to believe that a warehouse off the coast of Japan is housing some umanned IS units. We aren't sure who exactly they belong to, but our source tells us a new shipment is coming in this evening. We request that one of your students be sent to this warehouse to observe the proceedings. They are not to engage the individuals involved or try to interfere in any way. This is strictly a reconnaissance mission. The assigned student may defend himself/herself if necessary, but otherwise they are strictly to gather information."_

 _After careful consideration, the council decided to send Ichika. I guess they figured that it would be good to give him some experience, but I would have preferred someone like Tatenashi go instead. In any case, Ichika was sworn to secrecy then briefed on what to expect. We had open comms with and visuals on him the journey to the warehouse. Everything looked normal until a barge showed up. Workers quickly rushed to the docks and unloaded some sort of metallic body. All of a sudden comms were cut and our visuals disappeared. We immediately sent out a rescue squad, which found an unconscious Ichika lying face down on the docks. He was barely breathing, so we rushed him back here. We have no idea what occurred during that gap of time—only Ichika would._

As Chifuyu replaced the missing folder, the bell rang to begin the afternoon's classes. _Well, that'll have to wait. I have class to teach, and it's not like Ichika is in any state to help right now._ With that, Chifuyu headed off to Class One.


End file.
